Antonius Suwanto is a professor of Microbiology and Genetic Engineering at Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia; and an adjunct professor in Atma Jaya Indonesia Catholic University. He is currently a member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI).
Prof. Suwanto is interested in Molecular Genetics and Metagenomic study of Indonesian traditional fermented foods (especially Tempeh), biotechnology of plant-bacterial interactions; and enzyme bioprospecting from extremophiles. Some of his researches have been applied for the development of effective probiotics and prebiotics in agriculture, and aquaculture.
During his career, he received a number of excellent research and academic awards, such as Rockefeller Research award, International Foundation for Science (IFS), Indonesian Toray Science and technology Foundation Award, Indonesian Biodiversity (KEHATI) Award, and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). A patent has been granted for his work on the formulation of an effective probiotics to prevent bacterial diseases in crop plant. Professor Suwanto is known scientifically as the first to report the presence of more than one chromosome in prokaryote, which was achieved through his work on genome mapping of a photosynthetic anoxygenic bacterium, Rhodobacter sphaeroides in 1989.
